Residents Find Fault With Choice Of Firm To Build Waste Dump

Residents Fault Choice Of Waste-dump Builder

The agency charged with hiring a firm to build and operate a radioactive-waste dump in Connecticut was chastised at a public hearing Tuesday for choosing a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc.

A noisy but orderly crowd in a hearing room at the state Capitol protested that Chem Nuclear Systems Inc., a South Carolina firm, cannot be trusted because its parent company is one of the nation's biggest violators of environmental laws.

Waste Management Inc., of Oak Brook, Ill. has paid more than $50 million in fines for violations found at the hundreds of sites it operates across the country. The company manages trash dumps as well as sites for storage of chemical and nuclear waste.

"Their record is abysmal," said state Rep. Kevin Rennie, R-South Windsor, who represents one of three towns being examined as possible hosts for a disposal site for low-level radioactive waste. "It is filled with mishaps; it is filled with fines; it is not filled with our future."

However, officials of the Connecticut Hazardous Waste Management Service countered that Chem Nuclear has proven itself by successful operation of a radioactive-waste site in Barnwell, S.C. For 20 years, that facility has accepted much of the low-level radioactive waste in the nation, including about 90 percent of Connecticut's.

"It's important that people understand the difference between Chem Nuclear and Waste Management Inc. -- separate managements, separate operations and very different track records," said Joseph M. Cohen, spokesman for the waste management service. "We think [Chem Nuclear's] track record makes them a very strong company."

He noted that Chem Nuclear has won contracts to build and operate low-level radioactive waste dumps in Pennsylvania, Illinois and North Carolina.

Last February, the waste service chose Chem Nuclear from among two bidders on the dump contract, rejecting a competing bid from Westinghouse Electric Corp. Terms of the contract are being negotiated and should be concluded by January, Cohen said.

About 100 people gathered in the Capitol's ornately decorated old Senate chamber to voice opposition to the hiring of Chem

Nuclear. Many wore orange armbands, T-shirts bearing such slogans as "Hell no, we won't glow," and other symbols of the organized citizen opposition to the nuclear-dump site.

At times the hearing sounded like a championship tennis match, as the crowd burst into loud applause over points made by the speakers.

Most speakers came from Ellington, East Windsor and South Windsor, where three potential dump sites have been identified. Many voiced variations of concerns raised shortly after the sites were announced in June: that the site would threaten public health and lower property values.

But Michael Gerrard, a lawyer hired by the three towns, said he spotted flaws in the process by which Chem Nuclear was chosen. He said the firm should not be charged with designing the waste-storage technology and building the site.

"That gives the facility developer a tremendous incentive to use its own technology, whether or not that is the best technology," he said. "The service has effectively bound itself from making a sound determination either on the technology or the site."

Gerrard also said the service made "no real independent investigation of Chem Nuclear and its parent companies," and failed to consult some evaluations done by other states.

"We feel that this sloppiness in choosing Chem Nuclear will spill over into laxness in supervising Chem Nuclear as they design and build this facility," Gerrard said. "You've chosen to climb into bed with Chem Nuclear first and ask questions later."

Cohen drew a distinction between Tuesday's meeting and a public hearing.

"By choice we've made inclusion of public comment on the selection of the contractor part of the process so that people can make known to us anything that might be relevant prior to our final decision," he said.

But one speaker, Bonnie Tessman of Ellington, said the waste service board of directors appeared not to be listening to her and stared at her "as if I was from another planet."

"I thought the name public hearing meant an exchange of information," she said. "If I thought that they were hearing I'd be happy, but I don't think they're hearing."

A noisy but orderly crowd in a hearing room at the state Capitol protested that Chem Nuclear Systems Inc., a South Carolina firm, cannot be trusted because its parent company is one of the nation's biggest violators of environmental laws.

Waste Management Inc., of Oak Brook, Ill. has paid more than $50 million in fines for violations found at the hundreds of sites it operates across the country. The company manages trash dumps as well as sites for storage of chemical and nuclear waste.